John McAfee Arrested After Metadata Mistake

The antivirus pioneer now faces expulsion to the neighboring country of Belize, where he is wanted for questioning about the murder of his neighbor, reports Slate.

The neighbor's murder and McAfee's subsequent disappearance have all been strangely captivating, as McAfee kept a running blog during his three weeks on the lam. Fittingly, the circumstances leading to his capture were also highly unusual -- not to mention ironic for the man whose name is synonymous with data security.

John McAfee is an eccentric man by every account. So even when he was on the run from the cops, he stayed in the limelight. Part of that was allowing writers with Vice, an online magazine, to follow him around and chronicle his time on the run, explains The Next Web.

In an apparent message to authorities, a Vice headline read: "We are with John McAfee, suckers." But the joke was ultimately on Vice and McAfee.

In the post announcing they were following McAfee, Vice published a photo that appeared to have left some metadata in the image. By clicking on the image information of a photo of McAfee, tech-savvy netizens (and, apparently, Central American police) were able to pinpoint the latitude and longitude of the wanted man's location. And those coordinates pointed to Guatemala.

McAfee was arrested shortly after this metadata mistake. Fortunately for him, Vice magazine was nearby to document his arrest as well.

Last month, McAfee was sought for questioning regarding the murder of his neighbor Gregory Faull. The two had a rocky relationship, getting into heated arguments over McAfee's dogs and other issues. Faull's body was found by his housekeeper. He had been shot in the head.

It is not certain that McAfee killed Faull, and so far he is simply wanted for questioning. But McAfee's bizarre behavior following his neighbor's death certainly raise some suspicions about his possible role in the unsolved homicide.